What Is Cardano?
Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain platform for changemakers, innovators, and visionaries; the first to be founded on peer-reviewed research and developed through evidence-based methods. It combines pioneering technologies to provide unparalleled security and sustainability to decentralized applications, systems, and societies. Cardano exists to redistribute power from unaccountable structures to the margins and be an enabling force for positive change and progress.
History Of Cardano
The development of Cardano platform began in 2015 and was launched in 2017 by Charles Hoskinson, a co-founder of Ethereum. The funding was done through a Initial Coin Offering (ICO) with a market cap of $600 million.
Roadmap of Cardano
- Byron (Federated Mainnet - Foundation) - Mainnet Launch
- Shelley (Proof-of-Stake - Decentralization) - Hard Fork
- Goguen (Smart Contracts) - Network Change
- Basho (Scaling) - Network Change
- Voltaire (On-chain governance and treasury) - Network Change
Where To Buy Cardano (ADA)?
Since Cardano is a top cryptocurrency project, it's offered on most of the large crypto currency exchanges.
Frquently Asked Questions
- What is Cardano? What does 'Cardano' mean?
- Cardano is a popular cryptocurrency like Ethereum and Bitcoin. One of Cardano's innovations is high transaction capacities, fast transaction times, and low transaction fees, through a system of proof-of-stake. Cardano can be traded on most of the crypto currency exchanges.
- How does Cardano work?
- Blockchain based cryptocurrencies like Cardano work by grouping transactions together in data blocks, then linking the blocks cryptographically. The chain of blocks is stored across a decentralized network of stakeholder nodes, and distributed as peer-to-peer shared files. Quantities of Cardano are stored at addresses, cryptographic sequences paired with a private key used to spend the amount at the address. The user's wallet keeps track of all their Cardano addresses and adds up the balance.
- Who invented Cardano? How was Cardano created? Who is behind Cardano?
- Cardano was created by Charles Hoskinson as an attempt to technically improve Bitcoin and Ethereum, increasing the amount of transactions that can be processed, by replacing computationally expensive proof-of-work with a proof-of-stake. Cardano borrows the Blockchain concept from Bitcoin, and the Smart Contract concept from Ethereum. Cardano is maintained by the IOHK (Input Output Hong Kong), and the software is open source, so anyone can improve it.
- What is Cardano used for?
- Cardano is used for anything money is used for - buying, selling, donations. But Cardano can also be used for even more things than fiat currency: A means of accepting donations or facilitating commerce that cannot be shut down by governments or the banking system. Also storing up wealth that cannot be confiscated.
- Why does Cardano have value?
- Cardano has more value than Fiat Currency because it's more useful: It's anonymous, decentralized, irreversible, cannot be devalued, cannot be confiscated, can be sent over the internet to anywhere in the world in minutes. Things that are very useful and scarce tend to be valuable. One reason Cardano has value because it fulfills all of the requirements of money: Store of Value, Medium of Exchange, Unit of Account.
- How many Cardano coins are there? What is the Cardano maximum supply?
- The maximum number of Cardano ADA is 45 billion. New Cardano coins are given to staked wallets as a reward in the proof of stake system. It is estimated that it will take several decades before the maximum supply is reached. The designers were very conscious of hyperinflation from fiat currencies, and wanted a currency with a ruthlessly fixed supply. This makes Cardano a deflationary currency.
- What is a Cardano transaction? How do Cardano transactions work?
- An Cardano transaction is a transfer of value from one address to another. Unlike Bitcoin, which moves value by spending previously unspent transactions, Cardano doesn't have proof-of-work which requires solving computational hashes to add new blocks. A transaction is created by a user on their Cardano client software, then broadcast out to all the other nodes and becomes part of the Blockchain.
- Are Cardano transactions anonymous? Can Cardano be traced?
- The Blockchain is a public record of all transactions by all addresses. However, an address is just a number - it doesn't reveal anything about the identity of the one using it, like a street address can. As long as this number is never linked to an identity, the Cardano user is safe. There is no way to "trace" a Cardano address to the person using it - unless they leave clues connecting their Cardano address to their physical identity.
- Can Cardano be mined? What is Cardano mining? How does Cardano mining work?
- Cardano is not minable. Cardano also has a blockchain, but with a critical difference - it is proof-of-stake rather than proof-of-work. The blockchain is a record of all transactions, but rather than validation by anyone who performs the proof-of-work, transactions are validated by consensus proof-of-stake.
